Wall Drawing 130

First Installation

Paul Toner residence, New York

First Drawn By

S. Kato, Ryo Watanabe

MASS MoCA Building 7
Ground Floor

By 1971 Sol LeWitt had begun to add arcs and circles to his vocabulary. In 1972 he created a book, “Arcs, Circles, and Grids,” for Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland, which contained pen and ink drawings depicting all possible combinations of the three elements in the title. These combinations take into account both the type of line (arc, circle, grid) and all the possible points on a wall from which an arc can emanate (the center, the four corners, and the four midpoints of the sides.) Many of the combinations in the book also were used as plans for wall drawings, both before and after the book’s publication.

To create the enormous arcs and circles required for these wall drawings, which include Wall Drawing 130, the draftsmen work with giant compasses which have holes drilled into them at intervals, which indicate the placement of the arcs and circles.